Brinlee, Lake Zurich find the mark at Cary-Grove
The play is called "gun," and it can fire at just about any time for the Lake Zurich offense.
When the bullet in the play is Lake Zurich senior Jacob Brinlee, it's easy to see why the Bears want to fire as often as possible.
On Friday night at Cary Grove, the visiting Bears needed "the gun" to fire one more time - at the most critical of times.
With the game tied at 3-3 late in the fourth quarter, Lake Zurich took possession from the defending Class 6A champion Trojans with 1:08 left. Instead of taking a knee or running the ball in to the line two or three times, the Bears called for the gun, and Brinlee and the offense fired it just right.
Brinlee broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage, took it to the outside, then came to a complete stop at the Cary-Grove 8-yard line, turned and dashed for the end zone to give Lake Zurich a second straight heart-stopping victory, this one 10-3 over Cary Grove.
"That gun (play) always can break," said Brinlee, who finished with 167 yards on 18 carries. "If the offensive line blocks it well, the holes are huge. So the coaches were looking for me to break one and go, and I did."
The loss drops the Trojans to 0-2, the program's first winless start through two games since 2002.
"(Lake Zurich) did what they had to do to win the game tonight," said Cary-Grove coach Bruce Kay. "They got the ball in the hands of a great player and he made some plays, and that was the end of the story."
Before the Brinlee run got Lake Zurich (2-0), the lead, the Cary-Grove defense led by Sam Mago, Kyle Norberg and Rich Kersten held the former Fox Valley Conference rival in check.
"I'm proud of how our kids responded after last week," Kay said. "They responded extremely well and we just have to continue to improve each week."
Cary-Grove struck on its first possession and it was the Trojan's option offense that helped set up the first points. Behind the running of Ryan Mahoney (12 carries, 62 yards) and Patrick O'Malley (26 carries, 96 yards), Cary marched through the Lake Zurich defense and 13 plays later took a 3-0 lead on a booming 40-yard field goal from Nick Taylor.
From then on, Lake Zurich senior JJ Raffelson and the defense held the Trojans in check. Raffelson seemed to be everywhere a Cary-Grove ball carrier was and finished with 16 tackles. He sacked Cary-Grove quarterback Corey Laktas three times.
"(Cary Grove) runs triple option every play, so it was just a matter of what we saw and I just tried to get to the gap every time," Raffelson said. "They ran up the middle a lot and I tried to play my gap and fill."
Lake Zurich also had its chances early, but a penalty wiped out a 41-yard touchdown from Brinlee, and two fumbles halted drives.
"This is two weeks in a row where our offense keeps shooting itself in the foot with fumbles and penalties," Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz said. "Tonight we were good at times and made plays but we have been fortunate to get two wins making mistakes. We need to make sure that the kids learn that those mistakes are not acceptable."
Cary-Grove also might be missing a toe or two on its collective feet as well. The Trojans were bit by the turnover bug, halting a long drive, then missed a field goal into a stiff wind to end the first half.
"I think we executed most of the time tonight," Kay said. "But I also think that we held in check a very powerful offense as well."